GRAMMAR PROFICIENCY COURSE

Subject Page Number Short Summary of English Grammar 1 Short Summary of Russian Grammar 8 Prepositions 48 Adjective Declension Exercises 104 Verbs 107 Verbs of Motion translation Exercis

DTRA Russian Arms Control Speaking Proficiency Course

Grammar Review Course

Revised – 18 July 2001 OSPTL-Monterey SSgt John Morash

Subject Page Number

Short Summary of English Grammar 1

Short Summary of Russian Grammar 8

Prepositions 48

Adjective Declension Exercises 104

Verbs 107

Verbs of Motion translation Exercises 175

Short Summary of English Grammar

Before starting to analyze Russian grammar we will first brush up on the rules and the

terminology of the Basic English grammatical phenomenon

English words (as in other languages) are divided into several groups as parts of speech and

members of a sentence The most general descriptions will be given below

Parts of Speech

Nouns-are words denoting things, ideas, phenomenon and which answer the question what and

who (table, love, fog, rainbow, student, family, etc.)

Nouns are animate and inanimate and change for number (singular and plural)

English nouns have two cases- nominative (the case of the subject of the sentence) and

oblique (the case of all objects- direct, indirect, and prepositional)

Adjectives- are words modifying a noun (limiting, qualifying, or specifying) and which answer

the question What kind of?

Adjectives (and adverbs as well) have 3 degrees of comparison: positive, comparative,

and superlative (kind, kinder, kindest; beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful; good,

better, best; well, better, best)

Verbs are words expressing existence (to be), action (to read), or occurrence (to feel), and which

answers the question What is done?

1 English verbs are divided into two large groups: transitive and intransitive When

the action of the verb is directed toward its object (direct object only) the verb is called

transitive Obviously, if the action is directed towards the subject, the verb is intransitive

and may be followed only by the indirect or prepositional objects

2 English verbs have four moods:

a) the infinitive (to read) b) the indicative (I read, I am reading) c) the imperative (Read!)

d) the conditional (I would read, I would have read)

3 the indicative mood has three tenses (Past, Present, and Future), two voices

(Active and Passive) and four aspects:

Continuous – I am reading Indefinite – I read

Perfect – I have read Perfect Continuous – I have been reading

I will be punished

I had been punished

I will have been punished

Adverbs are words modifying a verb, adjective, or another adverb and which answers the

c) possessive (my, your)

d) demonstrative (this, that, such)

e) negative (nobody, nothing)

f) indefinite (somebody, something)

g) interrogative (who, what, how)

Numerals are words denoting a number Numerals are divided into two groups – ordinal

(one, two, three) and cardinal (first, second, third)

Prepositions are words connecting nouns to a verb, adjective, or another noun in the

sentence

Prepositions are concrete and abstract

Concrete – denote time (at three, on Monday, in 1962) and space (in, on)

Abstract – are attached to the verb such as: relay on, refer to

Participles are words functioning as a verbal adjective Verbal because it has verbal

characteristics (such as tense, voice, etc.) Adjective because it functions as a noun

modifier Participles have tense, aspect, and voice

Active Voice Passive Voice Present Tense Who is Doing

The woman reading by the window is my wife

Is being done by someone The book, being read by

me, is yours

The captain, who gave this order, is from Washington

The girl, who was talking with you, is our student

Is (was, has been) done by The letter written by me is

on the table

The car that was bought last week doesn’t run

Conjunctions are words connecting sentences (but, and, that, because)

Members of The Sentence Subject is an independent part of the sentence Any part of speech can function as

a subject of the sentence

The book is on the table (noun) Beautiful is an adjective (adjective) Sixty is the age of maturity (number)

To travel is very pleasant (verb) Seeing is believing (gerund)

Predicate denotes what the subject does or is Predicate is expressed by verbs or

verbal combinations

He is a man

He is born, lives, and dies

She is a beauty

Objects are directed, indirect, and prepositional

Direct – is an object following the transitive verb and answersthe questions: whom? what?

Indirect – is related to the verb indirectly and stands in any oblique case

1 Without a preposition

I give him a book

She sends her mother money every month

She often writes her friends

He bought me a book

2 With a preposition (prepositional indirect object)

I think of him

It is good for you

I came to the party with a friend

I don’t' receive letters from him

Modifiers Attribute is a noun, which answers the question What kind of? and specifies a noun

1 The most common attributes are adjectives (large room, cold weather)

2 Participles function as noun modifiers (running car, broken window)

3 A noun preceding another noun becomes its modifier (a brick house, silk dress)

4 In English, a whole phrase may function as a noun modifier (a do not disturb sign, a do not touch me expression)

Verb modifiers – are called adverbial modifiers The questions correspond to the function of the modifier and are respectively Where?, When?, How?, To what degree?

They are divided into several groups such as:

1 of places – to the left, everywhere, here, there, home, etc

2 of time – yesterday, sometimes, in the morning, often

3 of manner – fast, slowly, one by one

4 of measure or degree – very, much, many, greatly, almost, too, quite, well, badly, etc

The Structure of the Word Root is the main part of the word (interest)

Suffix is the part of the word following the root and changing the meaning of the word

(interesting, worker, ugliness, management, boyhood, freedom, beautiful, handy,

greenery, helpless)

Prefix is the part of the word preceding the root and changing the meaning of the word

(disinterest, uninteresting, misunderstanding, forgive, improper, cooperate, react)

Stem is a part of a word formed by the prefix, root, and suffix

Ending- depending of the relation of the word with the other parts of the sentence, it can require

as ending which does not change the meaning of the word The ending is a structural

grammatical phenomenon

I go he goes Pete's book books

Short Summary of Russian Grammar

The phonetic system of the Russian language differs from that in English The Russians use the Cyrillic alphabet There are 33 letters and, as a rule, (with some exceptions) the sound

matches the letter Nevertheless, there are very many similarities with the English phonetic

system The charts below show similarities, both in consonants and vowels

Note: the four consonants differ in pronunciation from the corresponding English consonants

The tip of the tongue touches the teeth instead of the alveoli

The Russian language has two kinds of vowels: hard and soft First we will introduce the hard vowels

Vowels

Russian English

А а A a (party)

Note: Russian vowels are generally short and articulated distinctly

Next is the second type of Russian vowels, the soft vowels To be able to articulate them we must first analyze the phenomenon which exists in both languages, namely the glide

Russian English

Russian soft vowels present a combination of й + hard vowels

If the soft sign (ь) stands in the middle of the word, its function is the separate syllables,

softening the preceding consonant To pronounce it correctly, a slight stop should be made

before articulating the following soft vowel In the absence of the soft sign, the soft vowel is pronounces without a stop together with the preceding consonant softening it

There is another sign separating syllables, the so-called hard sign (ъ) Contrary to the soft sign,

it does not soften (palatalize) the preceding consonant

Ъ ъ – подъезд; объявление; съёмка

The following is the rest of the Russian alphabet:

Russian English

Sibilants

Ж ж (always hard) the sound pronounced in pleasure, division

The Category of Gender

In the Russian language the category of gender is a grammatical phenomenon covering both the animate and the inanimate nouns and all their modifiers It is much wilder that simple indication

of animate gender differences All nouns with their modifiers fall into three group according to the endings and their historical and social usage

Modifiers

твой наш ваш

старый, новый дом, студент

твоя наша ваша

Старая, новая книга, студентка

твоё наше ваше

старое, новое окно, письмо

Affirmative, interrogative, and negative forms of the construction with "this" as the

subject of the sentence

The English language has rigid grammatical order of words in affirmative, interrogative, and negative constructions

Russian word order is very flexible and intonation (rising) will indicate whether it is a question or statement

Negative Это не студент

Это не карта

Это не окно

This is not a student

This is not a map

This is not a window

The Plural of Russian Nouns

The plural of masculine and feminine nouns has the same ending, - ы, for both genders barring exceptions

So when it comes to the plural endings, the general ы ending will be substituted by the и after the

sibilants and gutturals and in case of soft singular ending (ь, я) That gives you nine letters after

which и instead of ы will be written in plural

After Use Not

Мы We

Вы You Они They

Possessive pronouns function mainly as noun modifiers and agree in gender, number adn case with the modifies noun (exception: third person singular and plural)

There is another form of expressing possessiveness, (possessive pronoun) – свой (one's

own) It may be used with both singular and plural nouns

With the first and second person and plural, the use of свой or the corresponding мой,

наш, твой, ваш is optional But in the case of the third person singular or plural, the use of

свой is obligatory in order to express the meaning "one's own"

Note: 1 Свой is not used as a subject of the sentence

2 Свой can only be used in a clause if the actor of the main sentence and of the clause is

Ваша Наша

Ваши Наши

1 Это очень хорошее пальто мне нравится

2 Где находится ваш дом? стоит на маленькой тихой улице

3 Если хочет, мы будем разговаривать по-английски

4 В будущем году здесь построят новый дом будет жить рабочие

Complete the following sentences using the correct forms of the reflexive pronoun себя

supply prepositions where necessary

Make one sentence with a subordinate clause introduced by который from each pair of

sentences Write out the entire sentence

Model: Студентка работает в лаборатории

Лаборатория находится в другом здании

а the new school

b the school that is downtown

2 В какой квартире вы живёте?

a a small apartment

b an apartment which is on the third floor

3 Какой профессор читает сейчас лекхию?

a the new professor

b the professor who's turned out to be the strictest at our institute

4 Какой это задание?

a a difficult assignment

b the assignment the instructor gave me

Insert the correct form of the negative pronouns with ни-:

14 Работа совсем закончена, и работать здесь _ над чем

15 Объяснять здесь _ чего, вы уже всё понимаете Я больше _ чего объяснить не буду

Read the following sentences and explain the difference in the use if indefinite pronouns with -то and –нибудь

1 У неё в комнате в вазе стояли какие-то

цветы

а) У неё в комнате в вазе всегда стояли какие-нибудь цветы

4 Вчера я видел на выставке какую-то

картину этого художника

Я очень хочу купить какую нибудь картину этого художника

5 В коридоре кто-то разговаривал по

телефону

а) Мне кто-нибудь звонил?

б) Когда ему кто-нибудь звонил; он всегда начинал разговор: «Слушаю Вас»

4 Хочет кто- пойти в кино? Нельзя Было два билета, но кто- _ их уже взял

5 К тебе заходил кто- _, из наших старых друзей? Папа сказал мне, что недавно кто- заходил ко мне, но меня не было дома

6 Она советовалась с кем- из профессоров о своей диссертации? Она должна была давно посоветоваться с кем- _ из них

7 Вы не знаете, у кого- из ваших студентов есть этот учебник? -Я думаю, что есть Недавно Я брал этот учебник у кого- из них

5 Она что-то говорила мне об этом Она кое-что говорила мне об этом

Insert the proper form of indefinite pronouns with the particles -то,-нибудь, кое-, changing the

position of prepositions, if necessary Indicate if more than one indefinite pronoun is possible

46 Ты помогаешь делать эту работу

47 Мы подошли к дому и спросили, не знает ли _, где находится гостиница «Россия»

8 В марте у нас на работе случилось интересное

Insert the correct form of несколько or некоторый and put the words in parenthesis in the correct number and case

1 Профессор рассказал студентом (шутка) _ из них были очень смешные

2 Я опоздал на собрание на _ (минут)

3 _ (время) мы сидели без работы

4 У него (братья и сёстры)

5 Молодой писатель уже написал (роман), из них очень талантливо написаны

6 Мы видели много фильмов в этом кинотеатре, _ из них нам очень

понравились

7 Студенты задали учителю _ (вопрос), и он с удовольствием ответил на _ из них

8 На нашей улице _ (магазин) _ из них в понедельник закрыты Complete the following sentences, using the words indicated and making all necessary case agreements

6 _ вы купили для библиотеки?

Сколько (новая книга)

1 В последние годы в Москве построено

много/ многие (новый дом) были построены современными методами

Много/ многие (новый дом)

2 Я прочитал _ советских писателей

несколько/ некоторый (рассказ) _ из них мне очень понравились

Несколько/Некоторый

3 из нас уже смотрели этот фильм

Много/Многие

4 На нашей улице

несколько/некоторый (магазин) _ в понедельник закрыты

несколько/некоторый (магазин)

5 На автозаводе работает _

много/многие (молодой рабочий) _ учатся в вечерних школах и в институтах

7 Я здесь давно живу Мне в этом лесу знакомо _ дерево

8 _ раз, когда они встречаются, они ходят на футбол

9 Ольга Петровна занята день

10 На вечере было много старых знакомых, и с из них я хотел поговорить о наших студенческих годах

11 Мне нравятся _ добрые известия

Replace the underlined words with the correct form of всякий or любой

1 На поли его комнаты лежали разные бумаги

Prepositions in any language may be concrete or abstract

Concrete prepositions denote time and space relations

Space (Static) Russian English

At Near

Before Since (1917) From-To (1917-1991)

By (2 o'clock) During

Prepositions are not only used in their concrete meaning as in the prepositions above, but

abstractly as well, as in the examples below In this instance the prepositions are governed by

the preceding verb, and are considered a part if the inseparable verb-preposition combination

For example, compare the English and Russian phrases below

Abstract Prepositions Russian English

In the examples above neither the English nor the Russian prepositions denote any time or space

relationship between specific objects In both languages they have been historically used with

the corresponding verbs and have become a part of them (that is why they are sometimes called

postpositions)

Example:

зависеть от postposition to depend on отходить от preposition to step away

from положиться

на

postposition to rely on положить на preposition to put on

под стол (direction) под столом (place) подо мной

В- from the bank, library

ДЛЯ- message, for the sake of ОТ- belong to, against (ОТ МАШИНЫ, ОТ

ГРИППА)

У-supervision (РАБОТАЮ У НЕГО) ЗА-to get (fetch) something + instrumental

У-distance, at one's place

Preposition Exercises

Prepositions with the accusative denoting space:

In the following sentences insert either в or на in the blank and put the words in parentheses in the correct cases

9 Когда мальчики шли (занятия), они говорили о фильме, который смотрели вчера

In the following sentences insert either под or за in the blank and put the words in parentheses in

the correct case